Wednesday, September 17, 2008

As The Worm Turns: The Plot Thickens

So, there is a recommended amount of worms per square feet of worm bin, and a standard amount of pounds of food per week per pound of worms per square foot of worm bin. But the worms I bought came in a standard amount, and I already had a worm bin, and measuring my food waste just seemed like a lot of work, so I decided to wing it. And it turns out, I had the wrong amount of food per worm, and my 13 year old worm bin is sort of not that great and the worms were unhappy. I know! Who could have predicted a worm problem? It came out of nowhere.

If you are every going to dig around in a worm bin that has major problems, I highly recommend having a few glasses of wine with the ladies and going to a museum exhibit about purses first. (Mom - I need to talk to you about some purses we used to have laying around.) The exhibit was great. And later, the wine really made the whole digging around in my worm bin thing possible.

The problem seemed to mostly be from too much moisture, both because the bottom was sagging and not draining properly, and also, possibly, from too much food. So I dug deep, and put worms with bedding and food in one bucket and worms with just bedding in another bucket. Then I scooped out a ton of water from the bottom with my perry nuclear power plant mug (high school field trip souvenir) that happened to be laying nearby. The I put half a roll of paper towels down, covered it with the food, and covered the food with the non food. (People who are grossed out to come in my house can be reassured that this process took place in the garage.) Now, I still need to repair the bin to provide a platform for the worms so the water can leak down to the bottom, but I already have a plan in place for that.

Mmmm. They make worm bins with a tap at the bottom for removing the, ahem, "water." A compost pile is easier, but it sounds like the worms are much more entertaining. Who couldn't use a couple thousand little pets?